Making It Snappy

This is my beloved Aunt Mary. She is one of the dearest, sweetest people I know and growing up, I loved her like the most perfect stuffed animal in my crib, like the kindest good fairy in my imagination, the tastiest treat at the store. Jane and Emiline love her, too. They played dress up together like the princesses they are.

Cousins Confusion

For Jane, "cousin" is synonymous with any kid she particularly likes, is fun, or is nice to her. We're working on the confusion, but having a pretty great family is an awesome thing!
At the Fort Worth Water Gardens

Learning to share before learning to walk! You go Abby!

Still, every night, Jane thanks Heavenly Father for Becca, for making her so happy. It wasn't just the nail polish, but Becca did introduce it to my girl, and she's hooked!

Several years different in age, but thanks to very similar "Ludlow" personalities, Jason and Jane hit it off at Grammy's house. It was amazing to me how well they played together.

Also quite a bit older, Luke takes such good care of Jane, even when he forgets she's little and plays a bit too rough, his apologies are the best!

Can you tell these two are smitten with each other? I hope it lasts forever! I hope they are good pals at college and beyond!


And it's pretty incredible what good friends my girls already are!

Making it Snappy

This is what happens with a willing Grandpa and three very creative and amazing granddaughters. Oh, and face paint.

The Biggest Waterfall Ever aka Hike Up Memory Canyon

Written retrospectively on Jan 23, 2012
This summer whilst my sister and her clan were out visiting, she and her husband decided they really wanted to go visit Scipio, the primordial ooze-land of the Monroe family. They specifically wanted to get a good feel of the land dad spent so much time in ranching and farming, they wanted to go on a hike, hit the cemetery and just a good old fashioned immersion in family history. It was a huge success.

at the bottom

The big event was going on a hike up the canyon where my dad used to drive the cattle for the summer. First, we drove up to "The Grove" a little spot of paradise in a forsaken desert land I didn't know existed. That in itself made the whole trip worth it. Then we left that little Eden and snaked our way up a very rocky, narrow path (I could in no way imagine cattle climbing and snaking that way up the mountain). There was some skepticism in the group, as my dad hadn't been on that trail in at least 30 years, but we pressed forward and followed the enthusiasm of our mountain goat children.

Eric gets all the credit for prepping Jane for success on this one. He built it up by telling her in a grand, heroic sounding voice, "we're going on an adventure!" And it helped that there was a "big" waterfall at the top of the hike.
I supported good attitudes via those smiley face fruit snacks. Every 15 minutes (or sooner if I could sense there was a meltdown eminent) I would shout "happy check!" Every child with a smile on their face got a fruit snack.
And the end result was a blast! Jane did phenomenally and we all had a really good time. She still talks about it: "remember when we went to the biggest waterfall?" followed by "I peed my pants" stated very matter of factly. Turns out the sound of all that water was too much for her. So we took a quick bath in the waterfall and talked her into having wet clothes so she wouldn't get hot on the hike back down ;-)






In other exciting news, I wore my Vibram 5 toe shoes up the hike and they were A-MAZ-ING. I always get shin splints on the downward portion of hikes, but I was just fine. The shoes helped feel so much more the rocky path beneath my feet and I was the most sure-footed of the group. I've never been able to look up so much and enjoy the scenery around me on a hike. And my feet and body felt great when we got to the bottom.

Thinking About Blogging

I have been madly trying to format el Blogo for printing before the credit I had expired, so I've spent the last several days entrenched in 2008-2009 according to these Lines across my Face (TLAMF). A very interesting experience, I must say. Here's what stuck out to me:
1) I said I was tired. A lot.
2) I was tired. A lot.
3) There were some pretty rough months in there! Life right now is CAKE comparatively!
4) I was one proud, observant momma. I posted A LOT of month summaries about Jane's skills and abilities. I saved the world such ad nauseum proud parent behavior by keeping track in a "achievement calendar" for Emiline. But trust me, she is quite skilled and able, too.
5) Pain was a daily reality for a long time. And it's not now. And it feels so long ago.
6) I wasn't impressed with my writing as I read it retrospectively. I have to admit, I have blog posts that just taste so good to me as a writer in the moment. But apparently, my words got stale...not sure what that means, except that I'm really self-conscious about my writing at THIS moment.
7) I miss blogging. I really love doing it more regularly.
8) I write for an audience (seems like there were a lot of posts soliciting comments or throwing out questions), which I'm not sure I like, but I think as a rhetorician, I can't really get around. Unless I go private. And considering the copious amount of info about Jane, maybe I should before she starts to read??

Anyway, writing has always been a way of thinking through things, crystallizing moments, clarifying feelings, dehydrating ideas...we made jam today, can you tell? I heart writing. I'm glad that blogging has been a venue that motivates me, in a way that journaling doesn't quite do, to write through this whole period of becoming a mother and growing into the awesome and joyful role that is. It's made me think about how I want to post from here on out. I like that this is sort of a family record, but I like that it's also a personal blog where I go off on things. And I'd like to do more of the second, you know, once I got caught up with more of the first.

Also- I did NOT have a great experience with Blurb for said blog-to-book project. All said and done, the work I put in did not equal a product worth it- the time or money. At least for me.

And I feel like saying thank you- to the inventor of blogs, to blogger, to blog readers everywhere, and to who ever reads mine.